


Heart by Heart

by Hynt3r



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, F/F, Romance | Drama, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-23
Updated: 2018-07-29
Packaged: 2019-06-15 00:28:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15400944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hynt3r/pseuds/Hynt3r
Summary: What if Garnet had managed to throw Greg Universe over the fence before Rose Quartz could stop her? With no one in the way of recognizing their feelings for each other, Pearl and Rose Quartz finally have the chance to establish something truly extraordinary. But love takes time and love takes work, something they have to learn or risk falling apart.(3/4/19 ON HIATUS! I'm making a new version of this story.)





	1. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **A/N:** Originally I wanted to make this after Steven passed away so I wouldn’t have to erase all the character growth he helped the gems through but there’s already a fanfic about Rose Quartz returning after Steven dies on ff.net, and even though my fanfic would differ drastically from their’s after her return I didn’t want to seem like I was copying. Hopefully I can get their character growth without Steven half as good as the show, at least. Wish me luck?
> 
>  **EDIT 7/23/2018:** This chapter has been rewritten because I didn’t like how it came out. It’s been reworded with more details to make it longer but otherwise nothing important has changed, so if you’ve read this before it’s not necessary to read again in order to understand what happens next.

The night is young and serene, thousands of glittering stars littered across the twilight colored sky. There is a gentle summer breeze and Pearl of the Crystal Gems breathes it in. She has no reason to breathe, it is not required for her to live, but she likes to do it anyway. It has a rhythm and for that, it’s soothing. She gazes across the shore to the waves which are overlapping upon the other and crashing onto land. That, too, is calming on a peaceful night like this.

Pearl’s hair somewhat resembles a bob and she wears a sleeveless blue top covered by a translucent shawl, followed by her tight purple shorts, pink leggings, and sky blue slippers. As she admires the scenery in front of her she can picture her leader, Rose Quartz, getting sentimental about the Earth and it’s beauty if she was standing there with her now and Pearl wonders where she has strayed again.

“Pearl!”

Pearl’s train of thought is disturbed by the hoot of an owl speaking English. She turns to see a purple-shaded bird flying towards her and positions her arm so the avian could perch. “What is it, Amethyst?”

“This long-haired human was talking to me over by the fence!” Amethyst explains.

Pearl takes a moment to process it. That was unusual. Humans did not talk to owls, especially purple ones with a gem on their chest. “It spoke to you?”

“He was asking about Rose.” At the sound of footsteps approaching from behind them Amethyst turns her head in the way only owls can. “Look, there he is!”

Pearl eyes the human as he waved at them. She could not remember the last time a human crossed the border between them and human civilization and approached their temple since they put the sign up. This particular human has long, unruly dark brown hair and piercings in his ears. A single star lays front and center on his black shirt, the sleeves ripped mercilessly off and his blue jeans not far off. The only thing that seemed intact was his blue sandals. Abruptly Amethyst lunges forward before Pearl can stop her. “Amethyst, wait!”

The purple gem transforms back into her natural form mid-flight and gets right into the human’s face, effectively startling him. She has short fluffy hair and wears a black shawl over top a purple mauve tank top with a frilly-like bottom, and baggy black pants tucked into white boots.“It’s _you_!” She inspects him on four legs, pacing until she reaches his hair. “I’ve never seen this one around here before. Oh, I really like your hair!”

“Amethyst!” Pearl snapped, rushing over to pull Amethyst away and restrain her from further contact with the human. “Leave him be, you don’t know where he’s been.” She glanced towards the human who is still unsettled. “Uh, I’m very sorry about this…uh… _you_.”

They are distracted by a sudden flash of light from the warp pad. Their other teammate, Garnet, has returned from a mission to capture two corrupted gems forseen the day before. Garnet has black square-shaped hair and shiny shades that cover all three of her eyes. She wears a puffy-shouldered red shirt with a pale pink collar zigzaging down the middle, black pants, and reddish patches on the front and back of her feet. By the sound of her gasp she is as surprised by the sight of the three as they are of her. “Pearl, Amethyst! You’re with a human.”

“He followed me over the fence!” Amethyst exclaimed with excitement.

Pearl can feel the situation slowly getting out of their control and she looks to Garnet for help. She has been Rose’s second-in-command for many a millennia but when she is not around, Garnet becomes the de-facto leader of the Crystal Gems. “What should we do?”

The perma-fusion does not reply, instead marching straight up to the human and looking him right in the eyes to intimidate him. “State your purpose.”

The human stammers, making gestures as he speaks. “Uhh, I was kinda looking for the mysterious pink lady? Kinda really tall, lots of big curly hair?”

“See? He’s talking about Ro－” Pearl silences Amethyst before she can speak Rose’s name. She does not know how this human came to know of Rose or what he wants with her but she already knows she doesn’t like it. Ever since Rose’s last relationship with a man ended on bad terms she’s decided not to involve herself with humans anymore, and quite frankly, Pearl wants to keep it that way for as long as she can. She leans closer to Garnet and whispers. “I don’t know how to make him go away.”

Garnet thinks for the briefest of moments. “I’ll just throw him back over the fence.” She picks up the confused human and heads towards the fence, the other two Crystal Gems following close behind.

Pearl is relieved that they can be rid of the human and doesn’t attempt to hide it in her voice. “Excellent idea! Humans should stay on the other side of the fence like the sign says.”

The human squirms in Garnet’s hands in a feeble attempt to break free. “Please, no throwing!”

Garnet drops him on the other side of the fence.

The human lands with a yelp, groaning in pain. He immediately jumped up and claws at the fence, glaring at them. “Hey, what’s the deal?!”

“You’re trespassing on our side of the fence.” Pearl frowned.

“What do you want?” Garnet crossed her arms.

He shows them a large t-shirt that is black and red-rimmed. “I just wanted to give the mysterious pink lady this t-shirt that came with her free CD. You guys don’t happen to know her, do you?”

Once again Garnet does not reply. One of her arms shape-shifts and becomes longer, reaching over the metal fence and taking the shirt from the human’s hands. “We’ll take it to her.” After being traumatized by Amethyst the human doesn’t seem as startled by Garnet’s arm this time around.

“Er, thanks. But why’d you have to throw me over the fence? I just wanted to give her that t-shirt for coming to my show. Show… Aw jeez, what time is it?”

Pearl glances up at the sky, confused. “…Night time?”

He rubs his nape awkwardly. “Yeah, Marty’s probably looking for me. We’re supposed to hit the road. It’s a big show in a big city and I didn’t drop out of community college for nothing!” He grinned, looking at their collectively confused faces. Whatever small burst of enthusiasm he had managed to muster up then fell like a rock in his chest. He begins to backpedal away from them. “Okay… I’ll see you later!”

“Bye, show man!” Amethyst called after him as she and the others watch him leave.

“That was weird.” Pearl murmured, setting Amethyst down.

“All humans are weird.” Garnet nodded, leading them back to the temple. As they approached the temple they saw Rose Quartz. Out of all of them she was the only one to never reform out of her curly pink hair and white dress since Garnet and Amethyst met her. She eyes the shirt in Garnet’s hand, her interest in the possibility of something new as clear as day. “What’s that?”

Garnet hands the shirt to her. “Some human came over the fence to give it to you.”

“We threw him back over!” Amethyst quipped in.

Rose’s eyebrows furrow together and she frowns in concern. “You _threw_ him? Is he alright?”

“He ran off. You knew that human?” Pearl squawks in disbelief.

“He was playing a concert at the beach and I couldn’t help myself.” She smiles, admiring the t-shirt and flipping it over so the others could read what it said on the front. “His gimmick is space.”

Pearl snorted. Humans and _space_? “But humans can’t even live in space!”

“He was singing about it.”

Pearl scowls. He trespassed on their side of the fence to give Rose a t-shirt just because she watched him _sing_? She felt a pang of jealously. If Rose wanted to watch someone sing why hadn’t she come to her? “ _I_ can sing.”

Garnet and Amethyst both began to snicker at her, making Pearl blush light cerulean blue. Why were they starting to laugh? She glared at them. “What?”

“Oh, Pearl…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** : What do you think? Hope you liked the first chapter. :)


	2. Smoked Centipeetle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **A/N:** Thank you for the comments!  <3 Here’s the next chapter! Since this is a “what if this happened/didn’t happen” sort of AU most of the chapters will be based around episodes. Not every chapter will be based on one (or in episode order, for that matter) but for the next handful of chapters that’s what I’m going for. Just an FYI.

The Crystal Temple was both a network and realm of magical properties inexplicable by human nature. It served as the Crystal Gems' headquarters and each gem－fusions included－had their own room. They were all connected through the veins of the Crystal Heart. The Crystal Heart was one gigantic, beating heart, and the source of power for the Temple.

The youngest of the gems opened her door, returning from a trip outdoors, and entered her room. She took one look around and gaped. Her room consisted mostly of geodes and puddles leaking down from the waterfalls upstairs in Pearl's room. But that wasn't what troubled her. What troubled her was her various piles of junk had been _organized_ , and she knew just the gem who would do such a thing to her room.

Using her spin dash to hurtle upwards, Amethyst lands in Pearl's room with a splash. "Pearl!" Amethyst calls out to her. Pearl's room consists mostly of a lake and six raised waterfalls surrounded by walls reminiscent of dusk skies and pale golden ribbons that join together in the center of the ceiling like a chandelier.

Amethyst's target stands atop the center waterfall, moving gracefully to unlock her swords that float to her from the waterfall's depths. Pearl turns to look at her. "Oh, Amethyst, there you are. Care to explain what one of my swords was doing in your room?"

Amethyst rolled her eyes and replied sarcastically. "Having a _sword_ party?"

Pearl is not in the mood for one of Amethyst's games. "Oh _please_! You took it." She rasps back, placing her sword back in it's scabbard.

"I did _not_!" Amethyst protested, jumping up beside Pearl. "And what did you do to my room?!"

"I cleaned up your awful, awful mess. You're welcome."

"Pearl, I have a system! Now it's all wonky!"

Pearl snorts at what Amethyst calls her 'system.' Once she is certain that her sword is in tune with the others she twirls and faces Amethyst eye-to-eye. "Well, if you didn't keep taking my swords I wouldn't have to go in there and clean to look for it."

"I didn't take it! Your junk is always falling down into my room." Amethyst shouted. When she sees Pearl's unconvinced expression she decides to demonstrate. "Ugh, here." She grabs the nearest sword and throws it into the waterfall.

"Amethyst!" Pearl shrieked. She has a carefully precise way with moving her treasures through the water and that one act of recklessness could send her whole system astray. She dives down after her sword, knocking Amethyst over in the process.

"Hey!" Amethyst yelped, falling past one of the gaps between the waterfall and lake. She can barely register Pearl calling her name when she lands on a rapidly moving stream, unable to do anything but ride it until the end, and the force of being flung off the course sends her smack against one of the veins of the Crystal Heart.

Amethyst hung onto the vein with all her might just to feel secured to something. She looked up at the sound of a heart beating and gawked. Above her was the heart, connected to all the most dangerous parts of the temple, and beneath her was a freefall waiting to happen.

Now she really was in trouble.

The floor is close by and she reaches out to step on it while cursing her small size. Just as she is about to succeed in moving from the vein to the floor she loses her balance and falls. Her whip is summoned but there is nothing to grip onto and soon she is tangled up in it.

There is a flash of fluffy pink clouds－Rose's room－before she comes sliding to a halt into the Burning Room－the basement of the Crystal Temple. Most of the Crystal Heart's veins intersect across the walls and there is a lava pit in the middle of the floor. Bubbled gemstones are scattered across the ceiling and Amethyst lets out a relived sigh before spotting Garnet standing over the lava pit.

Garnet has her back turned to Amethyst as she lowers a purple scroll into the fire. The scroll screams and starts to morph into a smoke monster that Garnet bubbles. Amethyst, knowing better than to distract her, tries to wiggle down the rest of the vein. She ends up falling down the rest of the way, knocking down and popping a bubble in the process.

The _klink_ of the freed gemstone crashing to the floor alerts Garnet and she glances back in surprise. "Amethyst?"

Everything happens at once.

The smoke monster breaks free of Garnet's bubble just as the gem begins to reform. It vaguely resembles a centipede, having several segments composing the body and mandibles on it's rear. On each segment is a green crystal and around it's head is a fluffy white mane. The face is just a gem serving as an eye at the base of it's throat and an elongated pair of jaws.

The centipeetle screeches for only a moment before the smoke monster is on it and possessing it. The centipeetle convulses as it loses control of itself and _screams_ , the monster inside forcing it's most powerful form.

Rose Quartz and Pearl enter the room then. "What's going on?" Rose asked.

Neither Garnet or Amethyst get a chance to explain when the centipeetle begins to grow in length and size. It thrashes and suddenly it is gone, storming through the Crystal Temple and leaving an earthquake in it's wake.

"It's trying to escape!" Garnet yells over the rumble.

Amethyst－still tangled up in her whip－glances up at the ceiling. Pieces of rubble are beginning to fall, popping any bubbles in the way, and Amethyst panics. "Someone help me!"

Rose Quartz is over her in a flash, shield in hand, and the other gems rush over to take cover before any rubble can crush them. Once the centipeetle-induced earthquake died down Rose untangled Amethyst. "There you go, Amethyst."

Amethyst stretched and took a gander around the room. "Thanks." The Burning Room is a mess, littered with rubble and freed gems, and Pearl is rambling on about how everything was now chaos and stars, _how were they going to bubble all these corrupted gems before they reformed_?

"Quickly!" Rose charged forward, smashing and bubbling the shapes of the gems before they get the chance to fully reform with her teammates close behind her.

When the corrupted gems are safely restrained back in their bubbles the Crystal Gems make their way through the temple, following the path of destruction left by the possessed centipeetle. It leads them all the way to the demolished Temple Gate.

"Oh no." Amethyst gasps.

Rose Quartz cautiously steps outside first, waving them over when everything is clear.

"It's on the mountain!" Garnet announces suddenly, jumping up the mountain to face the monster before anyone can stop her.

"Garnet, wait!" Pearl wailed.

Amethyst watches Garnet run up to the centipeetle and lay a kick, then turn around and run back to them with the centipeetle in pursuit. The Crystal Gems run for their lives and hide behind a hand statue to take cover from the monster's acid spit.

"Sorry. I got ahead of myself." Garnet apologized, now embarrassed.

"It's okay, Garnet." Pearl reassured her.

"Hey, how are we gonna defeat the centipeetle?" Amethyst asked worriedly, watching the statue keeping them safe begin to melt from the toxic. Pearl letting Garnet get away with a stunt like that when she could not without getting an earful later was for another day.

"One of us needs to distract it. Amethyst, can you rope it with your whip while we hit it from behind?" Rose Quartz asked.

"Okay." In a whirlwind of purple hair, Amethyst dashes behind the monster and lassos it. The creature's mandibles cut through the fingers of the hand statue and just barely miss poofing the other Crystal Gems' forms in a single blow.

"Let's go." Rose leads the others towards the monster, weapons prepared, and with three strikes fired at once the creature is destroyed and bubbled, smoke monster included.

"Glad that's over." Amethyst flops onto her back in victory. She does not know what compels her to glance at the fence, but when she does, there is a crowd of humans watching them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** Sorry if this chapter isn't as good as the first one... I sort of rushed it instead of taking my time because I'm leaving tomorrow to visit family and didn't want to leave you guys hanging! I don't know when exactly I'll be back so the next chapter probably won't be for awhile. Sorry about that. Hope you still enjoyed this chapter. I also like constructive criticism, positive or negative!


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